Stacey Baysinger has borrowed money from her teenage daughter because efforts to collect child support from her ex-husband have failed. / Lee Rood/The Register

No one wants to borrow money from a child, but that’s what Stacey Bay­singer says she has to do on occasion to make ends meet.

The West Des Moines mother wouldn’t have to ask Mercedes, her 16-year-old who has a part-time job, for money if she regularly received the $402 monthly the girl’s father owes in child support.

But since Mercedes was born, father Billy C. Vanpelt, a convicted drug dealer currently on probation in Des Moines, has fallen at least $40,000 in arrears, court records show.

Court records show judges have repeatedly held Vanpelt in contempt for nonpayment, jailed him and ordered him to get a job.

But he doesn’t. Baysinger blames Iowa’s Child Support Recovery Unit for letting him get away with that.

“It’s just not right,” Bay­singer, 51, says. “Why don’t they make him get a job or lock him up?”

Amy Lorentzen McCoy, spokeswoman for Iowa’s Department of Human Services, said federal and state confidentiality laws prohibit her from commenting on specific cases. But she acknowledges some parents will go to great lengths to hide assets to avoid paying child support. Others try to catch up but just can’t.

“Under the law, we must be able to prove there was a willful failure to avoid paying support, along with the ability to pay the support,” she said.

She added: “We make it clear to obligors that we aren’t going away, that we’ll continue to enforce the court order until they fulfill their responsibility.”

Iowa’s recovery unit fares better than most in state-by-state comparisons, ranking fourth in the nation for recovering child-support payments. Last year, the unit took in more than $324 million and served 628,422 parents and children in 178,529 cases.

The unit collects an average of $2,043 per case, or about 73 percent of what’s due. The service costs taxpayers about $306 annually for each case.

McCoy contends punishment isn’t always the best route.

“If someone goes to jail for contempt, they can’t pay support, so that is one of the final tools we use to prompt payment,” she said.

The average income of those required to pay child support in Iowa is $16,000 and each owes about $12,000.

Vanpelt, however, has made some decisions that show why he’s in arrears.

In the mid-1990s, Vanpelt worked at Gordon Wholesale. But, according to court documents, he became addicted to methamphetamine. He was charged as part of a meth ring out of an Avon township auto repair shop that made headlines in 2001.

He was convicted of felony substance abuse and possession of anhydrous ammonia, ephedrine, ether and lithium.

The year he was charged, Vanpelt signed a quit claim deed transferring a junk yard he was co-owner of to a company called Vanpelt Properties run by his father.

He was more than $3,000 behind in his child support at the time, according to court documents. But a judge ultimately declined to put a lien on that property on Baysinger’s behalf, court documents show.

Vanpelt was sentenced to 30 years in prison on his drug charge but got lucky and was released early in 2005. Then he was charged again in 2008 on two drug possession charges.

In 2011, Vanpelt was convicted of a second felony: conspiracy to deliver meth. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but was released in less than a year.

Fred Scaletta, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Corrections, declined to say where Vanpelt is now living while on probation.

I was unable to locate Vanpelt, so I never got to hear his side of the story. In court documents, he has claimed he can’t find work as an ex-con, but he’s also admitted to gambling and drug use.

His elderly father, Clyde Vanpelt, told me in a brief conversation over the phone that, as far as he knows, his 52-year-old son is sick and unable to work.

“He’s been waiting for an operation,” Clyde Vanpelt said.

Clyde Vanpelt said he didn’t know how I could reach his son. He didn’t know his granddaughter was 16.

The senior Vanpelt said the land Baysinger went after in court never really belonged to Billy. “It belonged to me, but I put his name on it. It’s not now.”

The state’s recovery unit declined to make public the outstanding balance owed by Vanpelt. Court records show the amount was at least $36,000 in 2008. Bay­singer said the most recent accounting she was given by recovery unit workers was about $50,000.

One thing seems clear: If Billy Vanpelt continues on his current path, child-support recovery officials have the right under law to go after his tax refunds and his Social Security.

McCoy says the father’s debt does not end when Mercedes turns 18.

Recovery unit workers can dock his wages, levy money from his bank accounts, take lottery or gambling proceeds, prevent him from renewing his car title and charge him interest on his outstanding balance.

There is an easier route, however.

Vanpelt does have a high school diploma and completed a welding program.

A new program called REACH offers employment services to parents in arrears like him.

It’s offered by the state and several partners, including the Evelyn K. Davis Center for Working Families, DMACC, United Way, Wells Fargo, Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Visiting Nurse Services.

Participants also are provided classes in financial literacy, fatherhood, domestic violence, as well as job search and job readiness — issues that can be barriers to earning steady wages.

That route seems a lot more hopeful, not to mention honorable.

Still, the choice is his.

Lee Rood’s Reader’s Watchdog column helps Iowans get answers and accountability from public officials, the justice system, businesses and nonprofits. Contact her at lrood@dmreg.com or 515-284-8549.